The episode might have also referenced the Winter Classic. I’ll let Ashley explain.

Danny, introduced as the hospital’s “resident hockey fan,” has a conversation with his doctor, Alex Karev. Karev says Danny owes him $5 from a bet on the game the day before. Danny mentions how Patrick Sharp had 5 shots on goal to which Karev replies how none of them went in.

Later in the episode, Danny developed an infection of the liver and was put on the transplant list for a new one. His two doctors, one a pediatrician (Alex Karev) and one a general surgeon (Meredith Grey) were at odds for the choice of therapy: either continue with antibiotic therapy or perform surgery. After fluid buildup caused him to have an attack, he decided he wanted the surgery. Seeing as both of his parents were dead and his sister was his legal guardian, she gave consent for the surgery. Danny passed away after complications from surgery. Meredith Grey’s streak of not killing anyone ended. And it ended on a Caps fan.

They show a photo of his hospital room and an action figure that appears to look like it is Caps-related as well.

RIP one more Capitals fan in popular TV drama. We’ve still got Henry and Philip Jennings on The Americans– but for how long?

Eight days ago, Alex Ovechkin slashed Kris Letang in the ankles. Ovechkin claimed he was trying to shoot a loose puck at the net. Instead Letang fell dangerously into the end boards. Ovechkin was not whistled for a penalty and Letang left the game briefly.

The Penguins, rattled, lost focus on the two points. Instead, they spent the third period doling out cheap shots to Ovechkin and the Capitals, dispensing frontier justice rather than trying to win.

The fans followed their team’s lead. A Penguins fan poured beer on the Ovechkin and trainer Greg Smith during a stoppage in play.

The Capitals kept their eyes on the prize. They scored two goals in the third period, one from Joel Ward and an empty netter from John Carlson, to win 3-1.

I know you can’t print out GIFs and pin them to a bulletin board, but I hope the Caps remember how Pittsburgh played last week. Here’s a reminder.

That’s a pretty impressive run for the Caps. Here’s each Metro team’s record from December 4 to February 6.

Team

Record

Points

Caps

18-5-6

42

Penguins

13-9-6

32

Islanders

15-10-1

31

A few days removed from Adam’s tweet, the Caps now sit three points behind the Islanders and two behind the Penguins. Let’s take a look, at the team level, at some of the possible underlying factors behind the Caps’ substantial gains in the standings since early December.

No team has seen much of a change in possession, measured here by score-adjusted shot attempts. The Islanders have seen the biggest change, improving by half a percentage point, but both segments show them to be an elite possession team.

To the surprise of no Caps’ fans, Braden Holtby‘s play in net has been a huge part in drawing closer to the teams above them. The Caps’ team save percentage was 23rd in the league in the first segment, but it has been second since December 4. While the Pens’ goaltending has gone from elite to average, the Islanders continue to thrive despite mediocre play from their goalies.

The Caps’ ability to find the back of the net has been another reason they’ve shot up the Metro standings. The Caps’ PDO (save percentage plus shooting percentage) is second in the league during this span at 103.6.

The Caps power play was scoring at a clip that was second to only the Penguins prior to December 4. Since then, they’ve been average, thanks in part to a chunk of games where they struggled with both faceoffs and zone entries while up a man. The Pens PP was first prior to December 4 and is 30th since, while the Islanders pace of PP goals has remained consistently above average.

The Caps goals against pace, while down a man, has slowed considerably since December 4. The Pens have been a very good team in this regard all season, while the Islanders have struggled.

Using a wide lens, goaltending, shooting percentage, and penalty kill have all helped the Caps to gain ground on the Penguins and Islanders since December 4. But this is far from an exhaustive look at the topic, so feel free to add other angles and details in the comments.

Last night we had the pleasure of watching one of the best Super Bowls ever. The New England Patriots clinched their fourth championship after Malcolm Butler’s last-minute interception of Russell Wilson’s bizarre slant pass. As time expired, many NFL resellers shot emails to their subscribers offering official Pats championship gear.

Maybe FanEdge left some markup in their header, which pulled whatever favorite team a subscriber signed up with instead of the hard-coded Patriots name. Regardless, it’s hilarious. I want to see Ovechkin raise the Lombardi Trophy at practice today.

I’m not quite sure why Gordon was in in the bowels of Verizon Center this evening. Maybe it’s because the Wizards play the Spurs tonight at 7 tonight. Or maybe Alex Ovechkin is ready to take his talents to Daytona Beach and, oh great, now I’m worried.

Gordon now sports the same Caps number as Aaron Volpatti, Kris Beech, and Matt Cooke!

It’s here, and there’s no use chirping at the other squad at this point. Except to say…we dare not say anything at the moment, actually. Other than the CSN-Chicago lady we ran into who told us how f*%#@ing cold Chicago is, we’re just not going there. That, and our contributor today actually likes DC, and so now we’re feeling like jerks to whizz all over Chicago…which is, in the end, a great city.

Caps faithful have read bucket-fulls of analysis of why the Caps will win this. Jen Lute Costella has a modified view. And this, coming from a fancy-stats analyst who writes at Thecommittedindian.com. Her Hawks-Eye view:

The Hawks are clearly a team that’s got it together. How do you account for their consistently solid play, avoiding streaks?

Every team has a little streakiness in them, but at least this season for the Blackhawks, they’ve managed to avoid having any extended periods of trouble. When some guys have had some bad luck getting goals, others were still shooting around their normal shooting percentage so it evens things out a bit. I think the consistency is also the result of well-coached and -practiced systems. The players, no matter how often they are in the lineup, know the systems well since they have been the same for quite a while.

But Toews is still awesome…

I would say that Toews’ greatest strength is his leadership (and great play) while Ovechkin, when he’s on, is just dazzling on the ice. Compare the two C men.

Any team in the league would be lucky to have Toews or Ovechkin. They are very different players, but both have shown themselves to be elite players. Toews plays center so he is expected to carry a heavy load defensively when the team is breaking out of the zone, while Ovechkin, as a wing, is supposed to be ready to head into the offensive zone with the puck. Both do their jobs very well. Ovechkin’s scoring ability is really something to behold. His shot, his release, his ability to suddenly appear in the perfect spot to score are some of the things that make him one of the most dominant scorers in the NHL.

Toews is a more well rounded player, but again, as a center that is to be expected. Toews plays in all situations for Chicago. He’s so dangerous near the blue line, because he reads plays really well and steals the puck for a breakaway on the regular, even in shorthanded situations. Stories of Toews staying late to practice tipping in shots because he missed one in a game are pretty typical so he certainly leads by example.

Every team likes to strike first, but some teams are better than others digging themselves out of the hole. Speculate what it might mean when either team scores first.

The conditions will throw a big spin on the scoring in this game since we aren’t sure exactly what to expect from the ice. If there is a big glare from the sun, we could certainly see a lot of goals. Playing with a lead has not been the Caps strong suit this season, but it is certainly preferable to getting behind early. If the Blackhawks are trailing in a game, they tend to put their foot on the gas like nobody’s business and shoot the lights out. Lots of people believe in momentum from first goals. I tend to think momentum is fleeting, so while it would certainly be nice to get the first goal, I don’t think it will necessarily be a big determining factor in this game.

Currently it looks like no-one is better at PK than the Hawks. What’s the secret sauce?

I’m not sure I’m allowed to give you all the secret ingredients, but I can give a little insight. The penalty killers for the Blackhawks include a few of the best two-way forwards in the league so that certainly doesn’t hurt. The coaches do a great job of deploying players on the PK as well. More offensively gifted players like Toews, Hossa, Saad, and Seabrook are used for all of the neutral and offensive zone faceoffs to maximize their chances to score despite being a man down.

They also take some defensive zone faceoffs but the larger share of those go to penalty killing ace Marcus Kruger and his crew. Niklas Hjalmarsson is a shot-blocking, zone-clearing machine in human form so this also helps the penalty kill’s effectiveness. Finally, they are very patient and disciplined. They don’t often panic and make big mistakes that lead to goals.

Overall, what’s your game, what’s ours, and who comes out the better?

The Blackhawks suppress shots very well and have some dynamic players. The offense starts with the breakout passes from the defensemen making Chicago particularly fast in transition. Corey Crawford is still working out the kinks since coming off of injury but overall this season he has played very well.

The Capitals have made some big changes to their systems since Barry Trotz arrived. They are much better at suppressing shots than they once were. They’ve had some runs of odd luck this season, but I really think they are a better team than their record suggests. Obviously, they have some big hitters and Ovechkin is a big threat. The power play is a great friend to the Caps so if they can get Chicago in some penalty trouble, that could pay off.

I think Chicago is the better team overall, but the Caps have some really good players and improving systems that will make them a better team than last season.

City to city, what does Chicago do better than Washington DC?

I lived most of my life just outside of Chicago in Northwest Indiana. I now live about an hour west of DC. I’ve visited DC many times because my sister lived there for years. It’s a terrific city that I always enjoy spending time in. Chicago will always feel more like home to me of course so I’m probably biased. Both cities have great food from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. DC has the edge in terms of museums, because I think 90% of the district is made up of them. DC has the edge in number of politicians per square inch but I think it’s likely a draw between the two in terms of imprisoned politicians.

Predictions?

The goalies will be the key for this game. If it is really sunny, Crawford and Holtby will be dealing with some wicked glare and blind spots. If that’s the case, I would think it ends up a high scoring affair. Whichever team wins, I think it will be a very fun experience. I can’t wait to be there.

It’s been over a month since the bellicose winger got promoted to top line duty. He was in full bloom on Thursday, agitating the Blue Jackets all night. His premiere moment of belligerence came midway through the second period when Wilson goaded James Wisniewski into taking four minutes of penalty time for attempting to disfigure Wilson’s face.

That gave the Caps yet more power play time — they drew 14 PIMs tonight — to pummel Columbus netminder Sergei Bobrovsky. Bob, however, was sublime in net, stopping seven shots on the Wisniewski power play.

“It was just a battle in front of the net,” Wilson told me. “It’s a good hard battle and he kinda crossed the line a little bit. That’s why he ended up with the four minutes.”

“I mean, we’ve got five of the best players in the first power play,” he continued. “They’re gonna capitalize when they can. Any chance I get to put us up a man I’ll do that. … I just play my game.”

In addition to the Wisniewski whack, Wilson also drew a holding call on Brandon Dubinsky in the game’s second minute. Washington would score on the ensuing 5-on-3 power play after the Jackets took a too many men penalty. This comes on the heels of Tuesday’s game in Tampa, in which Wilson drew three minor penalties and ended up looking like this. Wilson finished Thursday’s game with 11:42 of ice time, two hits, and one shot attempt. According to your boy Adam Vingan, Wilson has drawn 21 penalties in just 18 games this season.

“He’s under everybody’s skin,” Trotz said of Wilson’s play. “He’s going to those hard areas. That’s why they’re trying to keep him out of there because he’s going there and he’s drawing penalties.”

“That gives us a chance to win every night,” the coach concluded.

Ultimately, Bobrovsky’s magnificence buried the Caps. He finished the game with 39 saves of 42 shots and spent over 10 minutes killing penalties with his reflexes. Last week in South Florida, Bobrovsky stopped 55 shots on the way to a victory over the Panthers.

Wheel of Fortune Host and Washington Capitals season ticket holder Pat Sajak was on PTI tonight. Sajak filled in as Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser’s celebrity stat boy, filming an Oddsmaker segment in the middle of the show. And he did the damn thing while wearing a Caps jacket.